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Technology revives Aboriginal language

TONY EASTLEY: New technologies are helping revive one of Australia's oldest languages which many people fear was slowly disappearing.

A school in Menindee, in far western New South Wales, is developing a computer application to help students learn the traditional Aboriginal language Paakantyi.

Margaret Paul reports.

MARGARET PAUL: Isabelle Bennett is 82. She's perched on a walking frame in the backyard of her small house in outback New South Wales, getting in-home lessons on how to speak her native language, Paakantji.

KAYLEEN KERWIN: When we say hello, we say...

WOMAN: She might know it, she might know it.

KAYLEEN KERWIN: Can you remember how you say hello?

ISABELLE BENNETT: No, I don't think so.

KAYLEEN KERWIN: Ngayi.

ISABELLE BENNETT: Ngayi, yeah, I remember that! Ngayi.

MARGARET PAUL: She did learn the language as a child, but she was taken away from her home in the Menindee Mission by the Catholic Church in 1945. She didn't speak it for decades.

Now she's back home and Kayleen Kerwin from the Menindee Central School is sitting with her on the grass, giving her all the help she can.

KAYLEEN KERWIN: What about the meat, when we have meat?

ISABELLE BENNETT: Wanga.

KAYLEEN KERWIN: Good, yes.

(Laughter)

ISABELLE BENNETT: I remember that quite easily!

MARGARET PAUL: In the Paakantji language, "paaka" means river. It's spoken by people of the Darling River in western New South Wales, from Bourke to Wilcannia and as far south as Wentworth, near the Victorian border.

Now, only a handful of people speak the language fluently, but the Menindee Central School is teaching its students the native tongue.

And when she's remembered a few more words, Isabelle Bennett's voice will form part of an iPad app the school is developing.

ISABELLE BENNETT: It makes me so proud. I'm so happy that our children are going to learn the language.

MARGARET PAUL: Kayleen Kerwin is a Paakantyi woman and a language assistant at the school. Her voice will also be on the app.

KAYLEEN KERWIN: Thank god for technology, you know. And it's so all upgraded now so you know, you didn't have the little dictaphones back then and things get lost and the little tapes and stuff. So this is all good now.

MARGARET PAUL: The program is being developed by one of the primary school teachers, who's doing all the coding in his spare time. Kayleen Kerwin says it's an exhausting process, but she's proud it means there'll be a permanent record of what her language sounds like.

The Paakantyi app is due to be released in the next month or so.

John Hobson is the coordinator of Indigenous languages education at the University of Sydney's Koori Centre.

JOHN HOBSON: It's certainly cutting edge and it's great to see people in a community like Menindee and the Paakantyi community getting on top of modern technology that's really going to appeal to kids and engage them in learning the language.

MARGARET PAUL: And it's not the only example of technology being used to revive Australian Indigenous languages. Mr Hobson has been working with a colleague in the United States on translating Facebook into less popular languages.

Three Australian Aboriginal languages are now available on Facebook, as well as other languages like Scottish Gaelic, Yiddish and Samoan. And there are plans for more Australian languages to get online too.

JOHN HOBSON: You know, having your page in Paakantyi might encourage people to actually post to each other in Paakantyi, and that's using the language, and that's a fabulous thing. That's really reviving it.

MARGARET PAUL: Mr Hobson says while the latest technology might get people hooked, the hard part is to keep them learning until they can speak the language fluently.

JOHN HOBSON: There's a great temptation with technology, and particularly in the language revival field, where people are pretty desperate to find a way forward, to latch onto something as the single answer, the magic silver bullet if you like.

Of course there is no such thing. We need as many different forms for people to be able to access and use the language, to learn it and most importantly to speak it to each other.

MARGARET PAUL: Back in her backyard, Isabelle Bennett reflects that growing up in Menindee is a lot different to when she was a child.

Did you speak language when you lived on the mission?

ISABEL BENNETT: No. We wasn't allowed. The children weren't allowed to use the language.

MARGARET PAUL: She is thrilled she'll have the chance to speak Paakantyi with her children and grandchildren.

From the Archives

Around 500 Indigenous people fought in the First World War, and as many as 5,000 in the second. But many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander diggers who made it home received little or no recognition for their contribution. On Anzac Day, 2007, the first parade to commemorate their efforts and bravery was held in Sydney. Listen to our report from that day by Lindy Kerin.